Senate race gets more interesting

The former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, made it official late last week he is eying a run for U.S. Senate from New Hampshire.

Yes, we know there were news headlines announcing he is now running. But such is not technically the case.

What Brown did announce is that he is officially considering a run for the U.S. Senate.

Now before some of our readers argue this is old news, let us explain.

Obviously, Brown has been toying for many months with the notion of challenging incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.

But in order to collect campaign contributions, Brown is required to formally declare he is considering the idea. This allows him to set up an exploratory committee to collect and spend donations.

While this does not assure a run for the Republican primary nomination, we would be hard pressed to bet against it.

Among those apparently like-minded is Sen. Shaheen’s campaign staff, which sharpened its focus on Brown in short order.

In a letter sent Saturday, less than 24 hours after Brown made his intentions a bit better known, the Shaheen machine issued a challenge. Brown should be willing to sign a “Peoples Pledge” to discourage outside groups from spending money on the race, as he did with Elizabeth Warren when they battled for the office representing Massachusetts (which Brown lost).

Practically speaking Brown would have had to have been in a drunken stupor to agree to such a deal. In addition, we see little evidence the pledge had much practical impact in Massachusetts. Money still flowed freely. But regardless, he lost. So why would he even think twice about cutting off his nose to spite his face here in New Hampshire?

And what’s more, Shaheen has the power of incumbency, unlike Warren.

The reality of this race, if Brown gets past a substantive challenge from other candidates like Jim Rubens, is that many millions of dollars will be spent on this race. With control of the Senate hanging in the balance this year, both parties will be pulling out all the stops for their respective candidates.

In fact, Democrats are a ways a head already in doing so.

While her staff was trying to make political points with “People Pledge” nonsense, Sen. Shaheen was reported to have recently been in California where she was doing some fundraising.

Mind you, we take no issue with Sen. Shaheen raising money from those beyond the borders of the Granite State. But she might want to tread carefully now that Democrats have their own version of the dastardly arch-conservative Koch Brothers with which to contend.

We refer to San Francisco millionaire Tom Steyer, who has declared rabid allegiance to anyone signing on — hook line and sinker — to the Global Warming Gospel according to Al Gore, et al.

According to news reports, Steyer is mounting the political left’s version of the Tea Party — vowing to fight wishy-washy Democrats who don’t think the way he does.

For the likes of Sen. Shaheen, this could spell trouble here in New Hampshire.

The senator sports a lackluster and disappointing (wishy-washy, if you will) career while in Washington. She has little to hang her hat on when compared to other senatorial go-getters like our own junior senator, Kelly Ayotte, and Sen. Susan Collins from across the border in Maine.

Should Brown win the nomination, we expect this to be one of Sen. Shaheen’s Achilles heels and that of her party.

You can’t criticize Koch Brothers money while pandering to the likes of Steyer and his advocates. At the same time, can Shaheen suffer alienating big money like that of Steyer?